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Sunday, April 29, 2012

Avengers Origins

Avengers Assemble... The Road So Far

Iron Man

Billionaire genius industrialist Tony Stark finds himself held captive in the Middle East with a electromagnet mounted in his chest to keep shrapnel from piercing his heart and killing him, forced to recreate the Jericho rocket for the terrorist group known as the Ten Rings. Instead, he miniaturizes arc reactor technology as a replacement and to fuel a mechanical suit of armor to escape.

Upon success, he returns to the States to change policy at his company as it concerns weapons manufacturing. When it comes to his attention that his weapons are still in use by the enemies of the United States, he uses his updated Mark II armor to free the terrorist hostages.

When business partner Obediah Stane creates his own armor but has no power source, he steals the arc reactor from Tony's chest as a battery. Near death's door, Tony uses an earlier arc reactor to power his body and his armor to confront Stane and his Iron Monger armor.

After defeating and killing Stane with the help of SHIELD agents and his assistant Pepper Potts, Tony holds a press conference and announces that he is indeed Iron Man.

Afterward, at his Malibu house, Colonel Nick Fury confronts Tony Stark and lets him in on the fact that there are more heroes out there than just Tony Stark and his armor.

The Incredible Hulk

Former gamma research scientist Bruce Banner hides out in Central America trying to stay off the radar and trying to find a cure for the curse of being the Hulk. When a drop of his gamma-irradiated blood finds its way into a bottle of soda with dangerous results, General 'Thunderbolt' Ross sends an extract team after Banner.

Banner barely escapes the military team sent after him, forced to release the beast within to do so - the Incredible Hulk. Making his way back to the United States, Banner tries to find medical data that will help a secretive supporter find a way to rid him of the Hulk for good. Banner crosses path with ex-flame Betty Ross during his university search.

Meanwhile, one of General Ross's men, Emil Blonsky, is injected with a modified version of the 'Super Soldier' serum that had been put on ice by Stark Industries during the Cold War. When Banner is spotted on campus, Ross and his men corner Banner to take him down. Turning into the Hulk, Banner takes on the soldiers, their hi-tech equipment, and the suped-up Blonsky. Utterly defeated, General Ross loses the battle and nearly gets his daughter injured or killed in the process. Only the Hulk was able to physically protect her, and leaps away with Betty in tow.

Betty, the now de-Hulked Banner, and the mysterious Samuel Stern, who had been in contact with Banner while in Central America, work to keep the Hulk in check. Blonsky, injected with more serum, confronts Banner hoping to re-engage in battle with the Hulk. Coming away disappointed, Blonsky forces Stern to inject him with gamma-irradiated blood, resulting in his transformation into a a hulking abomination.

When the Abomination starts to wreck havoc in the city, Banner is forced to get the suppressed Hulk to reemerge to do battle. Dropping from a hovering helicopter, Banner crashes to the asphalt and emerges from the crater as the Hulk. Finally defeating the Abomination, Hulk leaps away to return to a solitary existence to attempt to control the beast within.

Iron Man 2

Immediately after his announcement of being the armored Iron Man, Tony Stark dedicates his time to protecting America as a nuclear deterrent. Soon, the government looks to acquire the Iron Man armor to manage for themselves.

While Stark deals with a senate sub-committee, and his own failing health due to Paladium poisoning from his chest piece, he also deals with the new Stark Exposition in Queens, New York, and competition from fellow weapons designer, Justin Hammer.

During a grand prix race in Monaco, Tony is confronted by a new threat in the form of Ivan Vanko, the son of a physicist who had worked with Tony's father on the original ARC reactor technology. Armed with his own weaponry, Ivan battles and is defeated by Tony and his portable armor.

Afterward, Justin Hammer uses his money and connections to break Ivan out of prison to use Ivan's genius to finish developing his own military suit designs to present at the Stark Exposition.

Stark, faced with his own mortality and no solution to the Paladium poisoning, starts to shift his company to his new CEO Pepper Potts and starts acting reckless with his suit and his spare time. When a party at his Malibu home goes off rails, forcing Lt. Col. James Rhodes to commandeer one of Tony's suits of armor to take control of the situation and bring the suit back to base for armament in preparation of Hammer's presentation at the Expo.

When Nick Fury and undercover SHIELD Shadow agent Natasha Romanoff present Tony with an temporary antidote and a direction to find the discovery of a new element, Tony learns more about his father and does discover a new element that cures his Paladium poisoning.

At the Expo during Hammer's presentation, Rhodes' War Machine and the drones that Ivan developed are commandeered remotely by Ivan to attack Iron Man and the patrons of the Expo. After a fierce aerial battle, War Machine and Iron Man confront and defeat Ivan in his own new armor.

Afterward, Natasha writes up an assessment for Fury that recommends Iron Man for the Avengers Initiative and Tony Stark as a consultant. Meanwhile, Agent Coulson drives out to New Mexico based on a tip and finds the crater where a mysterious weapon has landed.

Thor

When the Ice Giants attack Asgard on the day of Thor's ascension to the throne, the interruption leads to Thor, Lady Sith,Loki, and the Warriors Three to a raid on the Ice Giant's land. Upon their return to Asgard, Thor's father Odin punishes his insolence by stripping him of his hammer and his power, and banishing him to earth. Mjolnir, Thor's hammer is cast down to earth as well with the spell invoked by Odin that "whoever who is worthy to wield the hammer shall have the power of Thor".

Afterward, Odin falls weak and is forced in the OdinSleep, allowing his other son Loki ascend to the throne. Unwilling to lift the exile on his brother, Thor is forced to wander around in a small town in New Mexico along with a trio of scientists.

Forced to learn the way of mortals, Thor takes a shine to one of the scientists as he warms up to life on earth. When he learns that his hammer has found its way to earth, he heads off to regain his birthright weapon that has been cordoned off by agents of SHIELD. Fighting his way through a platoon of guards Thor makes his way to the hammer. And like Excalibur in the stone, Thor tries to free the hammer from the stone. Lead agent Coulson and agent Clint 'Hawkeye' Barton look on as Thor fails in his attempt to free the hammer.

Feeling abandoned, Thor surrenders to the agents of SHIELD. Released into the custody of the scientists, Thor settles for the simpler life of a mortal. Lady Sith and the Warriors Three travel to earth to retrieve Thor just as Loki conspires with the leader of the Ice Giants to secretly come into Asgard with intentions to assassinate Odin in his sleep.

Not content with Asgard's throne while Thor lives, he orders the mystical Destroyer to travel to earth to end Thor's life once and for all. When the Destroyer destroys the town and injures his comrades and his new friends, a powerless Thor confronts the Destroyer and is killed. When the hammer senses his selfless act and his death, it comes to Thor to resurrect him as a god. Fully restored, Thor dispatches the Destroyer and returns to Asgard to stop the assassination of his father and confront Loki of his treachery to the throne and to Asgard. During the battle with his brother, Thor destroys the Rainbow Bridge and Loki falls to the cosmic unknown.

In the end, one of the scientists that helped Thor in New Mexico is led into an underground government facility to meet with Nick Fury. When they met, Fury shows him a power cubed object called the Tessaract. In a reflection, the 'ghost' of Loki whispers in the scientist's ear that this object is something worth a look.

Captain America: The First Avenger

During the onset of the Second World War one of Hilter's advisers, Johann Schmidt, searches for a mystical artifact called the Tessaract that holds enormous power and the key to machinations that will give him world domination.

In America, wimpy Brooklyn boy Steve Rogers tries repeatedly to enlist in the Army to fight for his country. Classified as a F4, Steve is given an opportunity to join a secret experimental program to test a 'Super Soldier' serum. When Steve Rogers comes out the other side of the experiment the perfect human specimen, the doctor is murdered by an agent of Hydra.

While Colonel Chester Phillips, British agent Peggy Carter, and Howard Stark head to Europe to take the fight to Hitler and Hydra's Schmidt, Steve Rogers is relegated to a life of American propaganda to increase the purchase of war bonds. But when his tour leads him overseas, Rogers finds himself disliked by the troops. When he realizes that his friend Bucky may be killed or captured, he goes on a suicide mission to save him and his fellow soldiers. While rescuing the prisoners from a Hydra base, Rogers comes face to face with Schmidt, The Red Skull. Eventually, Rogers and the rescued troops escaped and find their way back to the American base.

Armed with a new Vibratium shield Steve Rogers, Captain America, leads a group of hand picked men, including his friend Bucky, in an offensive against all of Hydra's operations. At every turn The Red Skull and his factories of mechanized destruction are thwarted by Rogers and his men, infuriating the Red Skull. During one raid of a moving train to capture one of the Red Skull's top scientists, Bucky falls to his death.

During a final assault on Hydra's last secret base, Captain America is captured by the Red Skull. Planned as a ruse, the Colonel Phillip's men and Agent Carter storm the base. The Red Skull escapes on his tessaract powered jet bomber on course to New York, with Captain America stowed aboard via the landing gear. During a final battle between the two super soldiers, the Red Skull grabs for the tessaract in his hands, setting up a chain reaction that reduces him to molecules scattered to the cosmos. With the plane de-powered and on a collision course to populated areas, Captain America forces the plane down in the Arctic to avoid killing any more innocent lives.

Seventy years later, the plane is found by SHIELD agents. Inside the cavernous cockpit in a frozen state, the body of Captain America is discovered. Returning him to a New York City SHIELD facility, Captain Rogers regains consciousness to realize that everyone he ever knew was gone and that he now lived in a brave new, strange world.